Boys basketball: Jack Loughrey pours in career-high 38 points, South Hadley gets past Belchertown 73-67 (PHOTOS)

SOUTH HADLEY — Regardless of what defense the Belchertown boys basketball team threw at South Hadley’s Jack Loughrey, he had an answer.

The Orioles tried a multitude of zones, a high-pressure man-to-man – and everything in between – but it just didn’t matter.

Loughrey erupted for a career-high 38 points, and each time Belchertown – which trailed by as many as 15 – tried to sneak back into the game in the second half, he had a response. South Hadley used Loughrey’s near 40-point outing, as well as 17 points from center Brady Currier, to defeat the Orioles 73-67 on its home floor Thursday night.

“That’s just my game, to try to drive it to the hoop and attack the paint,” Loughrey said. “Once I score a couple inside, everyone gets open shots. It all just comes along after we drive inside.”

Loughrey made 13 field goals, nearly all of them coming from inside the paint. The junior also cashed in 12 free throws on 16 attempts. There were either two options for Belchertown: give up an easy layup, or foul him and put him on the line. Neither of those resulted in stopping Loughrey from scoring.

“He’s special, and we knew he was gonna have a breakout year,” South Hadley head coach Chris Gerber said. “He certainly has. He plays the whole game, he’s tough as nails, and he’s a smart kid. He’s a true competitor. You need one of him, and you’re blessed when you have one.”

Orioles guard Cal Orzech (12 points) buried a wide-open 3 to start the second half and cut the Tigers’ lead to 33-29. Belchertown looked as if that would spark a run to perhaps take its first lead of the night. 

But Loughrey had other plans.

He responded with a 10-2 run by himself – capped off by an and-one to send the South Hadley student section into a frenzy – that was ignited by four consecutive Orioles turnovers. On the next possession, Isiah James knocked down one of his three 3-pointers to give the Tigers a comfortable 46-31 advantage.

Belchertown head coach Matt Stenuis was without his starting big man Shea MacLean, so Loughrey and Currier had a field day on the glass. It also didn’t help that the Orioles’ backcourt struggled to take care of the ball.

“We had a slow start, and we turned the ball over a ton, and we got killed on the boards,” Stenuis said of the third quarter. “The rest of the game, we adjusted, we packed it in, and we made a game of it.”

The response to the 15-point deficit wasn’t to mail it in, instead Belchertown dug deep and fought its way back into the contest. The Orioles hit five 3s in the third quarter, and ended the frame on a 12-3 run to enter the fourth only trailing by five, 51-46.

But again, just like the start of the third, the turnover bug bit Belchertown – and South Hadley knew exactly what to do.

This time a 13-0 run catapulted the lead all the way up to 18 (64-46), with Loughrey and Currier combining for 11 of those points, and Noah Hambley (9 points) banking home a layup following a sweet euro-step that faked out the Orioles defense.

“We played the right way,” Gerber said of the fourth-quarter run. “We let our defense turn into offense. We’re 100 percent still trying to figure it out on defense, but some days it looks great because we have a bunch of kids who play hard. But Belchertown never quit. They kept hustling, and they have a ton of kids who can make shots.”

As they did following Loughrey’s spurt to open the half, the Orioles had an answer after falling behind big. Brice Letendre (13 points) started and ended a 16-5 stretch in favor of Belchertown with two layups inside to make it 69-62 with two minutes left, and Ian McDonald (13 points) scored a minute later after a Loughrey free throw to cut it to six.

However, there just wasn’t enough time to overcome the entire 18-point deficit. But Stenuis was pleased with the fight of his team and to see so many contributors from top to bottom. Letendre, McDonald, and Orzech tallied double figures, as did Jackson Couchon (10 points) and Jacob Pacunas (10 points), while Tyler Marino added nine points. 

“I was very happy that we didn’t have any quit, and that’s always the question in those situations when you get down,” Stenuis said. “Everybody was productive tonight, which helped us not go away.”

Belchertown (3-5) travels to Monument Mountain next Monday at 7 p.m. South Hadley (4-2) returns home against Baystate Academy on the same day at the same time.